Tepid turnout in early balloting as county seeks support for Crisis Triage Center, 911 center, ambulance service

By Diana Alba Soular

dalba@lcsun-news.com AlbaSoular on Twitter

Posted:
07/29/2013 01:52:16 PM MDT

LAS CRUCES >> Doña Ana County voters will head to the polls Tuesday to decide a sales-tax increase and three bond questions that would support five projects, including the countywide 911 call center.

Voting will take place between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. at 38 locations across the county.

Early voting resulted in just a fraction of potential voters turning out.

Just 2.3 percent -- 2,638 people -- of the 113,083 residents registered cast a ballot in a month-long early-voting period that wrapped up Saturday, according to numbers from the Doña Ana County Clerk's Office on Monday.

Still, for a somewhat low-profile special election, the turnout is higher than typically, said Deputy County Clerk Mario Jimenez.

"We're used to having a lower turnout than this, especially for an election that doesn't have a lot more publicity and opposition," he said. "It's been a rather steady -- somewhat slow -- but at the same time, for a special election, it's been a good turnout."

The sales-tax election of 2007 for Spaceport America, though it also contemplated a sales tax increase, was more high-profile and had plenty of vocal proponents and critics, Jimenez noted.

"This particular election is not really a controversial election," he said.

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In all, 52,787 Democrats; 31,014 Republicans; 25,314 decline-to-state-a-party voters; 3,347 independent voters; and 621 other party voters are registered in this election, according to Lorrie Muñoz, elections staff coordinator for the clerk's office. The total is 113,083. The location of one polling location was revised Tuesday by the clerk's office. Voting will take place at Chaparral Middle School, 290 Lisa Drive in Chaparral -- not at the community's high school, as was previously advertised on the county's website.

On the ballot is a proposal to raise sales taxes countywide by 1/4 of 1 percent (an extra 25 cent charge on a $100 purchase) for three projects: paying to run a proposed new 911 call center; paying to run a built-but-not-yet-opened Crisis Triage Center for the mentally ill; and paying a subsidy for county ambulance service.

Also, three bond questions are on the ballot: a $6 million measure to build a new countywide 911 center, an $800,000 measure to finish building a facility for dogs and cats seized in hoarding and abuse cases; and a $1 million measure for improvements to the county-owned fairgrounds west of Las Cruces.

A canvass of the election is expected to begin after a 9 a.m. Thursday special meeting by the county commission at the Doña Ana County Government Center, 845 N. Motel Blvd., Las Cruces. The review will wrap up Aug. 6, when commissioners meet to certify the results.

- $6 million general obligation bond-renewal measure to pay for building a new 911 call center. If approved, there would be no tax increase.

- $800,000 GO bond-renewal measure to pay for finishing a facility for animals being held as evidence in court cases. If approved, there would be no tax increase.

- $1 million GO bond-renewal measure to pay for improvements to the Southern New Mexico Fairgrounds. If approved, there would be no tax increase.

*Proposed bonds have a 20-year lifetime

1/4 of 1 percent sales tax increase for**:

- Expanded 911 call center operations

- Crisis Triage Center operations

- Ambulance and EMT services

** Proposed tax would sunset in 10 years.

Source: Doña Ana County

SPECIAL ELECTION GUIDE

Doña Ana County voters will decide Tuesday on a sales tax hike and three bond questions that would support mainly public safety projects, including the local 911 call center.

The sales tax, if OK'd, will pay to run the 911 center, to fund ambulance service across the county and to finance operations of a new facility to help the mentally ill. It would add a 25-cent charge to a $100 purchase for the next 10 years, when it would sunset.

The sales tax -- or gross receipts tax -- would increase from 7.5625 percent to 7.8125 percent in most areas of Las Cruces.

The three bond questions would pay to build a new 911 call center, to improve county fairgrounds infrastructure, and to finish constructing a facility that houses dogs and cats from hoarding and abuse cases while a court case is in progress.

The county is seeking to renew existing property tax-backed bonds, meaning if Tuesday's measure passes, tax levels wouldn't increase. But if it fails, there would be a slight dip in property tax rates.

If approved, the GO bonds would keep a tax of $4.54 per year on $100,000 of assessed property value across the county.

Registered voters from both the unincorporated areas and within city limits can cast a ballot Tuesday at any one of 38 polling sites throughout the county.

• 53% of the sales tax, about $4.1 million in the first year, would pay for expanded staffing.

A separate GO bond-renewal question would generate $6 million to construct a new, larger building for 911 operations.

County officials contend that both the sales tax increase and the GO bond measure are needed to support the center, a crucial link in public safety.

The current 5,500 square-foot facility near Lohman Avenue and Main Street fails to meet federal guidelines in a number of ways, including that it's too close to traffic and is in a flood zone, officials have said. It's an aging former bank building and wasn't designed to hold a 911 center, they said.

The facility also lacks electrical capacity to add needed equipment and lacks space to add more staff, necessary as the county grows, 911 officials said. The GO bond dollars would be pooled with a $2.25 million grant from the state Legislature for a new, 18,000 square-foot building, likely to be located just north of the county complex off Motel Boulevard. Another smaller grant is available from the state for new equipment.
But even if more space was available, the 911 center doesn't have a budget to pay for expanded staffing, the reason for the proposed sales tax, county officials said.

Some critics have argued against tax measures in general. Other opponents have said that the 911 center has a genuine need, but should be paid for a different way or built to a smaller scale than what's proposed.

Several officials with the city of Las Cruces say they're content paying for the 911 center under its current model: Each of six local governments chip in a share of the $2.9 million per-year operating expenses. The city pays the most per year -- $1.4 million -- followed by county government.

• 26% of the sales tax, about $2 million yearly, would pay to run the center

The county has built, but not yet opened, the state's first-ever Crisis Triage Center. It's a facility meant to divert mentally ill residents who are in crisis from jail and the local hospital emergency room -- the two places advocates say they improperly end up now.

The center would hold for up to 24 hours mentally ill residents who have been taken into what's known as protective custody by law enforcement. There's a certain state law that allows for people to be detained for a short period to be evaluated by a mental health professional -- different from a criminal arrest.

Advocates have said such a center has been long-needed to fill a missing gap for mentally ill residents who are suicidal or experiencing another type of episode. The facility would help them get plugged into other, longer-term resources, officials said.

County officials have said they've budgeted to run the facility in its first year, but the tax is needed to sustain the operations.

Controversy in recent weeks centered around the mission of the facility. Some people said it should also accept mentally ill residents who were referred directly by family members and not necessarily law enforcement only. County commissioners, however, decided the facility's main purpose is jail diversion and specified that it will only accept residents in the custody of police.

• 21% of the sales tax, about $1.6 million yearly, would subsidize the service

Doña Ana County officials say the fund they currently use to subsidize ambulance service, an annual grant from the company that runs Memorial Medical Center, is expected to shrink significantly in the wake of federal health-care reform.

As such, they say they need an alternative way to pay the $1.3 million annual subsidy the county pays to its contracted service, currently American Medical Response. The subsidy ensures higher-quality equipment is available on vehicles, that ambulances are readily available in rural areas with a much lower demand and that residents who can't afford to pay their bill for transport have access to the service, officials said.

In addition, the proposed sales tax would help cover service expansion to match population growth, officials said.

Last year, AMR responded to 23,500 calls for service and has been seeing about 3 percent growth per year in demand, ambulance officials said.

The ambulance service is one of three projects that would be paid for by the tax. They're all covered by one question on the ballot, whether to OK the proposed new gross receipts tax.

Some residents have expressed support, saying the projects are in the interests of public safety. Others say they're against the proposal because it's a tax hike.

• An $800,000 bond would be used to outfit a partially finished building to hold confiscated pets

The county began construction in 2010 on a building to house dogs and cats seized by the sheriff's department in hoarding and abuse cases.

The sheriff's department was attempting to spend money from grant the Legislature was expected to soon claw back. There wasn't, however, enough money to finish the project at the time.

The bond would pay to finish the first phase and the animals in court cases are deemed as private property and evidence, one reason they must be kept in a separate facility, officials said. Now, they are held at a makeshift, outdoor kennel facility pieced together over the past several years by county staff.

Some county commissioners have said the bond measure is needed to boost safety levels for staff.

Authorities say the confiscated animals can't be kept at the city-county animal shelter because they'll take up space for adoptable animals.

• A $1 million bond would pay for a series of upgrades to the county fairgrounds

County officials say the aging, county-owned fairgrounds -- about 12 miles west of Las Cruces -- are in need of a number of upgrades and repairs.

The county has a list of possible improvements that could include metal sheds that would protect new horse stalls, bathrooms and bleachers.

County commissioners argue that the upgrades would attract new equestrian events, spurring local tourism, and improve the site for other users, including Southern New Mexico Fair & Rodeo attendees, wine fests and private events that rent the grounds.